More About Politics

That is the abbreviated title of this post. The full title is as follows:

To Vote or Not To Vote, and For Whom, and Why: That Is Those Are the Questions, the Most Important of Which is Why

Content:

John Hodgman aptly said in his first almanac of Complete World Knowledge, The Areas of My Expertise, “…history has shown us again and again that Facts are not what most humans believe….” Perhaps this is one of the truths which was accidentally allowed into the book.

It creates a perfect opportunity for marketing and politics (which is a form of marketing): it is not necessary to represent a product, person, group, or company accurately. In fact, that is generally detrimental. The goal is to convince people that this is what they want, regardless of whether it will actually benefit them. And that is not done using facts.

To most people, whether they realize it or not, the definitions of fact and opinion are something like:

fact (n.) An idea with which I agree.

opinion (n.) An idea with which I disagree.

As Patrick Rothfuss said in the blog post I linked to, it’s important to make choices for yourself, ignoring the opinions of those who are trying to make that choice for you. Another thing most people don’t realize is where their opinions come from. Usually it’s friends, family, or media, all of whose information comes from other people with opinions… it’s interesting to imagine being able to trace back the trail of opinions to their originators, and then divine those originators’ true intentions.

I don’t think there is any earthbound way to obtain enough true and accurate information to make a sufficiently educated decision as to whether or how I should vote. No way to know all the variables, some of which are doubtless being actively hidden. I think perhaps the most satisfactory way to make that choice is to at some point just stop looking for external information, and meditate in solitude until I know my choice.

This means there will be no justification, nothing to point to and say, “this is why.” A lot of people probably wouldn’t like that at all, perhaps because they can’t convince me to change my decision, ostensibly because it is not based on logic. And it means I won’t be able to convince others to change their decisions. Good.

Without justification or logic, my sources cannot be invalidated and my logic won’t be based on any flawed premise. I don’t care what others choose. Yes, it affects me, but it isn’t my job to make that choice for them.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone chose this way. Perhaps you should consider it.